Which Relatives Can A Person Not Marry?

Which relatives can a person not marry?

Women who are forbidden to marry in Islam are mentioned in verses and hadiths and it is clearly stated that it is halal to marry other women. The women with whom matrimony is haram are: your mothers, daughters, sisters, father’s sisters, mother’s sisters, brother’s daughters, sister’s daughters, [milk] mothers who nursed you, sisters through nursing, wives’ mothers, and step-daughters under your guardianship [born] of the wives unto whom one has gone in, wife of son, daughter and mother’s sister and father’s sister of the wife as long as the marriage with the wife lasts (one may not marry to these women before divorcing his wife), idolators, ignicolists, and astrolatrists, milk-mother, milk-sister, milk-father’s sister, milk-mother’s sister, and women who are married to other people (Nisa, 4/23-24; Mawsili, al-Ikhtiyar, III, 43). Marrying to other women is permissible if there is no other impediment to marriage. After specifying the women with whom matrimony is prohibited, it is stated, “And lawful to you are [all others] beyond these” (Nisa, 4/24).There is no evidence which prohibits marriage with relatives other than those specified above. The hadith of, “Do not get marry to your close relatives, for your child will be born weak,” which is included in some books, (Ibn Hajar, Talkhis al-Habir, III, 309) does not exist in reliable hadith books. The expression of “You are giving birth to weak children. For this reason, marry to foreign women,” which is mentioned related to this subject, belongs to Umar not to Prophet Muhammad (saw) (Ibn Hajar, Talkhis al-Habir, III, 309). Prophet Muhammad (saw) married to daughter of his father’s sister Zaynab Ibn Jahsh (Ahzab, 33/36-38) and married his daughter Fatima to the son of his uncle Ali.

Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWA